Once upon a time and not so long ago, blogs looked like blogs and websites looked like websites. One could easily tell the difference.
Then WordPress came along and everything changed. Now, it’s becoming more and more difficult to tell blogs and websites apart. Not so much in terms of what the sites are being used for, but in terms of website design and also being able to tell what’s under the surface.
(It’s Getting Harder To Tell Websites Built With Web Development Tools Vs ‘Blogging’ Software!)
For many website owners, understanding the difference between a CMS application like WordPress and other website-building software is huge, not so much in terms of the technical differences, but more importantly, in terms of the things that the majority of website owners care about, such as web development costs, ease of use, ability to maintain the site up-to-date, managing web content, etc.
Think about this …
Which of these options would you choose?
A) An eye-catching, professional-looking website that turns out to be fairly expensive to build, or
B) The same eye-catching, professional-looking site, but at a much cheaper price than the cost of getting option ”A” built.
If you selected website “B”, then you need to learn more about WordPress, why WordPress can be used to create an eye-catching website that will normally end up costing you far less to build than websites which use website-building software … and how to tell the two apart!
WordPress is the world’s most popular online publishing platform and content management system (CMS). It is a powerful content management system suitable for all businesses and non-technical users.
Whether your reason for having an online presence is for personal blogging or business use, WordPress is easy enough for a novice with no knowledge of coding to use and manage, yet it offers an array of helpful features that make your web presence extremely effective in terms of getting your content published and indexed by search engines, promoting visitor interaction, generating business leads and sales, enhancing your site’s functionality, scalability, etc.
With almost one in every five websites around the world currently being powered by WordPress, chances are that if you already own a website, yours is also a WordPress site.
And if you don’t have a website yet, or are thinking of getting one built, then wouldn’t it be great to show your web developer an existing site with the design and layout that you like, know that it was built with WordPress and that you can, therefore, get a similar site built for your business to a smaller budget if required?
Was My Website Built Using WordPress? How To Tell
Do you need to know if a website uses WordPress? Maybe you’ve come here because you’ve heard or read about all of the great advantages of using WordPress, and you’re now wondering if your site was built using the WordPress software, or some other website application.
Also, have you ever looked at a competitor’s website and wondered what they’re doing to try and get better results online?
Knowing if your competitor’s site is built with WordPress can tell you a few things about their strategies and methods, such as what themes or plugins they are using.
Here are a number of methods you can use to quickly tell if a web site is running on WordPress:
Look At The Source Code
If you know how to search the source code of a web page (e.g. Firefox Menu > Web Developer > Page Source if using Firefox, or Google Menu > More Tools > View Source if using Google Chrome), you can look for a telltale footprint …
(How to view page source code using the Firefox browser)
Let’s say that you are surfing the web and you come across a site that you like, and you would like to know if the site runs on WordPress …
First, bring up the site’s source code on your screen, using the methods described above.
In the source code, you can search for “wp-content” either by scanning the code visually …
Or using the browser’s “Find” function …
(Use the Firefox web browser ‘Find’ function)
This will tell you if the site is powered by WordPress or not.
Note: If you are unable to see “wp-content” in the source code, it does not necessarily mean that you are not looking at a WordPress site.
There are other ways to find out if a site was built using WordPress, as we will soon be discussing.
As the focus of this article is to help non-technical users, however, below you will find a number of easy methods you can use to check if your site is built using WordPress other than looking at the source code.
Simply Ask Your Webmaster
While this may seem like the logical thing to do, a number of web development agencies, for whatever reason, will build their clients a website and not tell them it’s WordPress.
If you used the services of a website developer or got somebody else to build your website, just ask your webmaster or whoever built your web site if the web site runs on WordPress.
That was simple, huh?
Okay … what if you can’t reach your webmaster, or what if you’ve come across a site that you really like while surfing the net late at night and you really would like to know if the site was built using WordPress?
Check Below The Footer
If the site uses a WP theme and the site templates have not been edited, you can often see a “Powered by WordPress” message shown at the bottom of the site …
(Proudly Powered by WordPress – site footer area)
If these simple methods aren’t helpful to you, here are some other ways of telling whether a site runs on WordPress or not …
Tools That Tell You If A Website Is Built With WordPress
Here are a some online applications that can tell you if the website uses WordPress or not, and what themes or plugins the site uses …
Is It WordPress? – WP Checking Tool
(Is It WordPress?)
Is It WordPress? is a free tool that can check very quickly if a site runs on WordPress or not.
Using this site is very easy. Just enter the address of the site into the search field and click the button next to it.
It will then go and search through the URL pages and tell you if the site was built using WordPress, and if so, it will even tell you which version of WordPress it is currently using …
If the site is not a WordPress site, you will see a message like the one below …
To visit this site, go here:
Advanced WP Theme Checker by Satori
(WordPress Theme Detector)
WordPress Theme Detector by Satori Studio is a free tool that can help determine whether or not a website uses WordPress as its CMS engine; it will also tell you which theme the site is using and provide a link to the theme’s official page.
To use this tool, paste the URL of a web page (it doesn’t have to be the home page) into the ‘Enter website URL’ field and click on the ‘What WordPress theme is that?’ button …
(Enter website URL and click the button)
The Theme Detector will automatically scan the website and output its theme information …
(WordPress Theme Detector displays theme results)
If a website is built with WordPress but the theme is too customized to contain any traces of its origins, the Detector will still let you know it’s a WP site by outputting a message on the right.
(Modified WordPress theme message)
If the website is not using WordPress at all, the tool will also let you know …
(This website is not WordPress)
You can try the Detector yourself by visiting this link:
Wappalyzer
(Wappalyzer – Browser Add-On (Firefox / Chrome))
If you browse the net using either Firefox or Google Chrome and want to be able to instantly tell if the sites that you are visiting are WP sites, then Wappalyzer is a useful add-on to add to your web browser.
Wappalyzer helps you identify what type of software is installed on the sites you are visiting.
According to their website …
“Wappalyzer is a browser extension that uncovers the technologies used on websites. It detects content management systems, eCommerce platforms, web servers, JavaScript frameworks, analytics tools and many more.”
It’s also an easy browser add-on to install.
After installing Wappalyzer on your web browser, icons will show up in your web browser allowing you to see which technologies are installed on all the sites you are visiting …
If you see the WordPress icon on your browser menu (as the above screenshot shows), then the site uses WordPress.
(This is a WordPress site!)
Visit the Wappalyzer add-on website here:
SpyBar
(SpyBar – Browser Addon For WordPress)
SpyBar is a browser addon that lets you ‘reverse engineer’ any WordPress site you visit and see which WordPress plugins and themes are being used, right inside your web browser …
(SpyBar – Discover WordPress Plugins And Themes Used By Your Competitors)
SpyBar can be installed as a browser extension on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and is compatible with PC and Mac.
To download or learn more about SpyBar, go here:
Plugin Sniper
(Plugin Sniper – Find out what plugins a WordPress site is using)
Plugin Sniper lets you find out what plugins a WordPress site is using. This is a useful tool if you want to know what WordPress plugins are being used by your competitors.
Plugin Sniper is also a useful tool for researching what kinds of plugins businesses in certain niches are using …
(Search WordPress sites by categories and location)
To download or learn more about Plugin Sniper, visit the site below:
We hope that you have found the above tutorial useful.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now